| Ian,
I am sure there are many noters that can give far beter advise
than I but here I go. The store where we bought you nape was
fantastic! any question we had they'd answer. I don't think
Roger the man who feeds and weans the birds at this store would
mind answering a few questions. P.S. He was telling us about
his household, when he and his wife get home the birds all say "door
open come out" meaning they want to get out of their cage and the
birds do have other antics.
the store is Tropic Isle in Framingham. Compared with a few other
storres we checked out beofre buyinng, we found this store to be
most honest and helpful in anyway.
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My story is just about identical to the base note except I have a Blue Front
Amazon that refuses to be weaned. Tonto's about 4 months old and we've had her
since day 5. She had been playing with real fruits and veggies for a while and
was up to 410 grams when we started forcing the weaning in earnest. She eats a
little food, but throws most of it around her cage. After a couple weeks of
cutting back on the hand feeding, we tried accelerating the process and just
kept lots of different foods in front of her, but no more spoon feeding. In the
course of a week her weight steadily dropped to about 320 grams, at which time
we jumped back in to keep her from starving herself to death (had that happen
once before with a cockatiel.) Now she won't eat the Exact, she eats a little
Gerber, still plays with her fruits and vegetables, wants nothing to do with
seeds and seems to be holding around 320 grams (for about 10 days now.) We do
not seem to be progessing. She's in a cage more or less off by herself now; we
figured maybe she'd eat out of boredom as she was worse when she was in the
living room with the other birds.
FWIW in addition to Tonto we have 6 Greys and an Orange Wing so we are
aware of a parrot's general wasteful eating habits. We wouldn't have gotten
too worried, except she lost almost 25% of her body weight. She has seemed real
active throughout this ordeal, no particular behavior changes...
Whenever she sees my wife, she starts with her "feed me, feed me, feed me"
whining, but once at the feeding table doesn't seem to want very much, a few
spoonfuls and fling the rest.
Any hints,
How about some sympathy stories to make us feel better?
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| Whereas there were no hints nor sympathy stories, I'll update the conference
with the today's status.
After Tonto crossed the 300 gram mark (when we started weaning she was over
400 grams) a neighbor suggested we take her to the vet to see if she was sick,
not just stubborn. As it turns out she had a yeast infection in her crop,
brought on probably by the stress of the weaning process (according to the
vet). He gave her an injection of antibiotics at the clinic and 2 oral
medications as follow-up. Within hours after the trip to the vet she started
wolfing down the corn and rice and veggies. Now, a week later, she wants
nothing to do with the baby-food and is eating well. Her weight is still around
300 grams, but she's holding her own and getting sassy. I believe we've turned
the corner...
NOTE: When asked where she might have gotten the infection, the vet indicated,
just like in humans, the digestive track always contains bacteria, both
beneficial and harmful. Normally the harmful batcteria are relatively
minor, however under stressfull conditions, the balance can be upset and
the harmful bacteria get out of control.
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